[ANSTHRLD] Is <clericus> a Registerable Byname

[Doug Bell]

It is period so that isn't the issue.

SENA PN.4.B is the section that controls this and this name hasn't been ruled on.
There is little to go on in the Laurel rulings and nothing found under SENA.

Here are a few rulings under Rfs you can read for ideas. 


The issues are:

-presumption due to use of a locative in the name and

-ordination implies claim to rank.

You have to stay clear of those.

Magnus


Grimaldus the Chapelain was registered without comment March 2010. The issue 

of rank was raised and answered in commentary.


[November 1995 LoAR, A-Caid]

Dagan Cleirech. Name and device. Per pale Or and vert semy of shamrocks counterchanged.
The name was submitted as Dagan Cleireach (with a typo in the LoI making the byname Cliereach). The two elements are spelled according to the conventions of different periods: Dagán is early, while cléireach `cleric, clerk' is late-period or modern. To avoid changing the given name, we have substituted the older form of the byname. (The modern form would be Daghán Cléireach.) The name is excellent: the epithet is even attested in just this form. (The documentation in the LoI, however, refers to a different name, the early hereditary surname Ua Cléirigh, which is from Cléirech as a given name.)



[October 2009 LoAR, A-An Tir]

Selewine sacerdos Guytherin.  Name and device. Per bend sinister purpure and Or, a patriarchal cross counterchanged. 
Submitted as Selewine Offeiriad Gwytherin, no documentation was provided that bynames of the type Offeiriad + <place name> 'priest of <place name>' were used in Welsh.
The cited Academy of Saint Gabriel Report, #3175, only gives evidence
for this pattern in Latin:
You are right that a
locative byname is not the best choice; during your period, we have
found no examples of locative bynames which stand apart from a title or
an occupation. However, among churchmen we find a wide variety of
occupations and titular bynames, including the following Latin terms:
[2]
>	* episcopus (bishop)
>	* magister (master, teacher)
>	* doctor (probably a teacher of some sort)
>	* presbiter (a religious functionary)
>	* scriptor (writer, scribe)
>	* lector (reader, lecturer)
>	* sacerdos (priest)
>	* abbas (abbot)
>	* archidiaconus (archdeacon)
>These
titles were sometimes found in association with place names, e.g.
<abbas Nant Carban>, <sacerdos Ilduit>, <lector
Catoci>. [2] In the first example, <Nant Carban> is the name
of a church. In the second two examples, the Latinized given name of
the dedicatory saint stands in for the church. This gives us two
patterns from which we could construct a byname with the references you
desire.
>Saint Gwenfrewy's name was recorded as <Wenefreda>
in Latin [3,5], so <sacerdos Wenefrede> 'priest of Wenefreda' is
a suitable byname following the pattern of the second two examples.
(The change from <Wenfreda> [sic] to <Wenefrede> is again a
change to the possessive form of the name.) In a "lives of the saints"
from the early 12th century, <Gwytherin> is recorded in Latin as
<Guytherin> [5], so based on this <sacerdos Guytherin>
'priest of Guytherin' is also a plausible byname. [4]
We have changed the name to Selewine sacerdos Guytherin to register it.
Some
questioned whether a byname meaning 'priest of <place name> or
'priest of <saint's name>' is presumptuous. The use of Offeiriad is presumptuous, because it implies ordination. Harpy explains:
Keep
in mind that offeiriad (in whatever form) means specifically an
ordained priest, not simply any person in religious orders. (The word
comes originally from a root meaning "the person who makes the offering
at mass".) If your intention is for your persona to be a monk, but not
specifically a priest, then this isn't the word you want. The word for
"monk" that shows up in personal names is "mynach".
RfS VI forbids the registration of names which appear to make claims to powers or ranks that the submitter does not have. Since Offeiriad implies ordination, and we do not ordain people in the SCA, it is not registerable. The word sacerdos, on the other hand, does not have the connotation of ordination, so it does not violate RfS VI.1 or VI.2.